Article
1.
These Regulations are formulated in accordance with the
Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter
referred to as "the Copyright Law").
Article
2. The
term "works" as referred to in the Copyright Law
means intellectual creations with originality in the literary,
artistic or scientific domain, insofar as they can be
reproduced in a tangible form.
Article
3. The
term "creation" as referred to in the Copyright Law
means intellectual activities in which literary, artistic or
scientific works are directly created.
Any organizational activity, consultation, material support or
other auxiliary services conducted or offered for another
person's creation shall not be deemed as creation.
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Article
4. For
the purposes of the Copyright Law and these Regulations, the
following expressions concerning works shall have the meanings
hereunder assigned to them:
(1) "written works" means works expressed in written
form, such as novels, poems, essays and theses;
(2) "oral works" means works expressed in form of
spoken language, such as impromptu speeches, lectures and
court debates;
(3) "musical works" means such works as songs and
symphonic works, with or without accompanying words, which can
be sung or performed;
(4) "dramatic works" means such works as dramas,
operas and local traditional operas for stage performance;
(5) "qu yi works" means such works as "xiang
sheng" (cross talk), "kuai shu" (clapper talk),
"da gu" (ballad singing with drum accompaniment) and
"ping shu" (story telling based on novels), which
are mainly performed by recitation or singing, or by both;
(6) "choreographic works" means works in which ideas
and feelings are or can be expressed through successive body
movements, gestures, facial movements, etc;
(7) "acrobatic works" means works expressed through
body movements and skills, such as acrobatics, magic and
circus;
(8) "works of fine arts" means two-or
three-dimensional works of the plastic arts created in lines,
colours or other media which impart aesthetic effect, such as
paintings, works of calligraphy and sculptures;
(9) "works of architecture" means works with
aesthetic effect which are expressed in form of buildings or
structures;
(10) "photographic works" means artistic works
created by recording images of objects on light-sensitive or
other materials with the aid of devices;
(11) "cinematographic works and works created by a
process analogous to cinematography" means works which
are recorded on some material, consisting of a series of
images, with or without accompanying sound, and which can be
projected with the aid of suitable devices or communicated by
other means;
(12) "graphic works" means such works as drawings of
engineering designs and product designs for the purpose of
actual construction and manufacturing, and as maps and
sketches showing geographical phenomena and demonstrating the
fundamentals or the structure of a thing or an object;
(13) "model works" means three-dimensional works
made on the basis of the shape and the structure of an object
to a certain scale, for the purpose of display, test or
observation.
Article
5. For
the purposes of the Copyright Law and these Regulations, the
following expressions shall have the meanings hereunder
assigned to them:
(1) "news on current affairs" means the mere facts
or happenings conveyed through the media such as newspapers,
periodicals and radio and television programmes;
(2) "sound recordings" means aural fixations of
sounds of performances or of other sounds;
(3) "video recordings" means fixations of a
connected series of related images or pictures, with or
with-out accompanying sounds, other than cinematographic works
and works created by a process analogous to cinematography;
(4) "producer of sound recordings" means the person
who first makes the sound recordings;
(5) "producer of video recordings" means the person
who first makes the video recordings;
(6) "performer" means an actor, or a performing
group or any other person who performs literary or artistic
works.
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Article
6. A
copyright shall subsist on the date when a work is created.
Article
7. Works
of foreigners or stateless persons first published in the
territory of China, as provided in the third paragraph of
Article 2 of the Copyright Law, shall be protected from the
date of the first publication of the works.
Article
8. Where
a work of a foreigner or a stateless person first published
outside the territory of China is published in the territory
of China within 30 days thereafter, it shall be deemed
published simultaneously in the territory of China.
Article
9. Where
a work of joint authorship cannot be separated into parts and
exploited separately, the copyright therein shall be enjoyed
by the co-authors and exercised under a unanimous agreement;
where an agreement thereupon cannot be reached through
consultation, any party may not, without justifications,
prevent the other party or parties from exercising the
copyright, except the transfer right; however, the gains thus
obtained shall be distributed reasonably among all the
co-authors.
Article
10. Where
a copyright owner authorizes another person to make, based on
his works, cinematographic works or works created by a process
analogous to cinematography, it is deemed that he has
permitted him to make necessary alteration of his works,
insofar as such alteration does not distort or mutilate the
original works.
Article
11. The
terms "tasks" as referred to in the first paragraph
of Article 16 of the Copyright Law regarding a work created in
the course of employment means the duties the citizen shall
fulfill in the legal person or organization by which he is
employed.
The term "material and technical resources" as
referred to in the second paragraph of Article 16 of the
Copyright Law regarding a work created in the course of
employment means the funds, equipment or materials purposely
provided to the citizen by the legal person or organization by
which he is employed for the creation of a work.
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Article 12.
Where,
within two years after the completion of a work created in the
course of employment, the author, with the consent by the
entity he belongs to, authorizes a third party to exploit his
work in the same manner as the entity may have, the
remuneration obtained therefrom shall be divided between the
author and the entity according to the agreed proportions.
The period of two years after the completion of the work shall
be calculated from the date on which the author submits the
work to the entity.
Article
13.
In the case of a work of an unidentified author, the
copyright, except the right of authorship, shall be exercised
by the owner of the original copy of the work. Where the
author is identified, the copyright shall be exercised by the
author or his successor.
Article
14. Where
one of the co-authors of a work dies without any successor or
legatee, the rights he enjoyed in the work as stipulated in
subparagraphs (5) through (17) of the first paragraph of
Article 10 of the Copyright Law shall be exercised by the
other co-authors.
Article 15.
The right
of authorship, the right of revision and the right of
integrity included in a copyright shall, after the death of
the author, be protected by his successor or legatee.
In the absence of a successor or legatee, the right of
authorship, the right of revision and the right of integrity
included in a copyright shall be protected by the
administrative departments for copyright.
Article
16. The
exploitation of a work the copyright in which is enjoyed by
the State shall be managed by the administrative department
for copyright of the State Council.
Article
17.
In the case of a posthumous work, the right of publication may
be exercised by the author's successor or legatee within a
period of 50 years after the death of the author, unless the
author had expressly stated otherwise. In the absence of a
successor or legatee, the said right shall be exercised by the
owner of the original copy of the work.
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Article
18. In
the case of a work of an unidentified author, the term of
protection for the rights of such an author as provided in
subparagraphs (5) through (17) of the first paragraph of
Article 10 of the Copyright Law shall expire on December 31 of
the 50th year after the first publication of the work. The
provisions of Article 21 of the Copyright Law shall be
applicable after the author of the work has been identified.
Article
19. Anyone
who exploits another person's work shall clearly indicate the
name of the author and the title of the work, except where the
parties agree otherwise or the indication cannot be undertaken
due to the special characteristic of the manner of exploiting
the work.
Article 20. The
term "published work" as referred to in the
Copyright Law means a work which has been made available to
the public by the copyright owner himself or under his
permission.
Article 21.
The
exploitation of a published work which may be exploited
without permission from the copyright owner in accordance with
the relevant provisions of the Copyright Law shall not impair
the normal exploitation of the work concerned, nor
unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the
copyright owner.
Article 22.
The rates
of remuneration for the exploitation of works in accordance
with the provisions of Article 23, the second paragraph of
Article 32 and the third paragraph of Article 39 of the
Copyright Law shall be fixed and issued by the administrative
department for copyright of the State Council jointly with the
competent department for pricing of the State Council.
Article
23. Anyone
who exploits another person's work shall conclude a licensing
contract with the copyright owner, and the contract shall be
made in written form insofar as the right licensed for
exploiting the work has an exclusive nature, except where the
work is to be published in a newspaper or a periodical.
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Article 24.
The
contents of an exclusive right of exploitation provided in
Article 24 of the Copyright Law shall be agreed upon by the
contract. In the absence of such an agreement or of any clear
agreement thereupon in the contract, it shall be deemed that
the licensee has the right to prevent any other person,
including the copyright owner himself, from exploiting the
work in the same manner; unless otherwise agreed in the
contract, the sublicensing of the same right to a third party
by the licensee shall be subject to the permission from the
copyright owner.
Article 25.
An
exclusive licensing contract and a copyright transfer contract
concluded with the copyright owner may be filed with the
administrative departments for copyright for the record.
Article 26.
The term
"rights and interests related to copyright" as
referred to in the Copyright Law and these Regulations means
the rights enjoyed by publishers in the typographical designs
of their books or periodicals, the rights enjoyed by
performers in their performances, the rights enjoyed by
producers of sound and video recordings in their sound and
video recordings, and the rights enjoyed by radio and
television stations in their broadcasting programmes.
Article 27.
Publishers,
performers, producers of sound and video recordings, and radio
and television stations, in the course of exercising their
rights, shall not prejudice the rights of the copyright owners
in the works being exploited and in the original works.
Article 28.
Where it is
agreed in a book publishing contract that the book publisher
enjoys an exclusive publishing right but its particular
contents are not specified, it shall be deemed that the book
publisher has the exclusive right to publish a book in the
same language and in the form of original or revised version,
within the term of validity of the contract and the territory
defined by the contract.
Article
29. If
two separate subscription forms mailed by the copyright owner
to the book publisher are still not able to be fulfilled
within six months, it shall be deemed that the stock of the
book is exhausted as referred to in Article 31 of the
Copyright Law.
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Article 30.
Where a
copyright owner declares in accordance with the second
paragraph of Article 32 of the Copyright Law that no
reprinting or excerpting of his work is permitted, he shall
append such a declaration to the work when it is published in
a newspaper or a periodical.
Article 31.
Where a
copyright owner declares in accordance with the third
paragraph of Article 39 of the Copyright Law that no making of
sound recordings of his work is permitted, he shall make such
a declaration when his work is legally recorded.
Article 32.
To exploit
another person's work in accordance with the provisions of
Article 23, the second paragraph of Article 32 and the third
paragraph of Article 39 of the Copyright Law, the exploiter
shall pay remuneration to the copyright owner within two
months from the date of exploitation of the said work.
Article 33.
Performances
by foreigners or stateless persons in the territory of China
shall be protected by the Copyright Law.
The rights enjoyed by foreigners or stateless persons in their
performances under the international treaties to which China
has already acceded shall be protected by the Copyright Law.
Article
34. Sound
recordings produced and distributed by foreigners or stateless
persons in the territory of China shall be protected by the
Copyright Law.
The rights enjoyed by foreigners or stateless persons in the
sound recordings produced and distributed by them under the
international treaties to which China has acceded shall be
protected by the Copyright Law.
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Article 35.
The rights
enjoyed by foreign radio and television stations in their
broadcasting programmes under the international treaties to
which China has acceded shall be protected by the Copyright
Law.
Article 36.
Where any
act of infringement is committed as enumerated in Article 47
of the Copyright Law, which also prejudices the social or
public interests, the administrative department for copyright
may impose a fine of not more than three times the volume of
the illegal business; where the volume of illegal business is
difficult to calculate, a fine of not more than 100,000 yuan
may be imposed.
Article 37.
Where any
act of infringement is committed as enumerated in Article 47
of the Copyright Law, which also prejudices the social or
public interests, the administrative department for copyright
of the local people's government shall be responsible for the
investigation into and dealing with such an act.
The administrative department for copyright of the State
Council may investigate into and deal with any act of
infringement that is of nationwide effect.
Article 38.
These
Regulations shall be effective on September 15, 2002. The
Regulations for the Implementation of the Copyright Law of the
People's Republic of China, which were approved by the State
Council on May 24, 1991 and promulgated by the National
Copyright Administration on May 30, 1991, shall be abolished
at the same time.
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